


Insight; Often Comes from Somewhere Unexpected

by ryoku



Series: Switch; To Change Circumstances [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Age Swap AU, Gen, Jason Todd is Robin, Jason Todd is the First Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 19:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14003280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryoku/pseuds/ryoku
Summary: Jason and Kori go grocery shopping. Conversation ensues, and Jason gets some useful advice.





	Insight; Often Comes from Somewhere Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written Kori before, and I don't know if I did her well, but damn was she fun to write. I decided to make the chief decision to make Miss Martian one of the early members of the Teen Titans. Cause the more girls, the better. This is part of my Age Swap AU, where Jason is the oldest bat brat. It can be read alone, but probably goes best if enjoyed with the others.

“Mushrooms, garlic, beets, potatoes, carrots, ginger root...” Jason trailed off, looking at the list Kori had handed to him. “And lots and lots of tofu. Four different types of tofu. Why am I not surprised.” 

“Gar is very fond of tofu,” Kori supplied, as she slid off the back of his bike.

“Light, hard, silken, and extra firm.” Jason said, eyeing the list suspiciously, then got off the bike himself. “Sounds like something X Rated.” Jason muttered to himself. Kori looked at him inquisitively, and he snapped his mouth shut, waving off the question she thankfully hadn't asked. She didn't seem to have a problem talking about that sort of thing, which made it worse, because he absolutely did. “Shouldn't he be getting this stuff on his own?” 

Kori gave him a look that could probably melt the polar ice caps. “I volunteered to go to the market,” she said, and started walking towards the grocery store. Not wanting her to get too far ahead, Jason followed. “I enjoy learning about Earth food. There are always new things to find at the market. It is very educational. I thought I would learn more if you accompanied me, since you are a good chef.” 

Jason stored that compliment away for a rainy day. Kori thought his cooking was good, and it was really sweet of her to say so. That was one of the nice things about Kori, she was so genuine, but it could be pretty embarrassing too. He was sure she wasn't angling to get more food out of him either, like Roy would have, which of course had the opposite effect. He wanted to feed her more now. 

There'd been plenty of times when he was young, that the older people in his neighborhood had fed him when he didn't have anywhere else to turn. It felt good to be on the opposite end of that equation, to be feeding others, and Kori seemed to appreciate every bit of kindness that was offered to her, without looking for ulterior motives. 

He caught up with her as they entered the grocery store, the automatic doors opening to give them entry. Kori smiled up at the door before going through.

“Donna's good at cooking too,” Jason said, instead of taking the compliment gracefully. He grabbed a cart as they walked by, then started over to the produce section. While Gar might have needed a list to know what he was getting, Jason could remember what he needed without a problem. Bat memory tricks were useful.

As he walked over to the fresh fruit, Kori looked at him in excitement, and followed on his heels. “I did not know this!” She said, as Jason grabbed a plastic bag and started inspecting, and loading apples into it. “I read a book that was about different kinds of food from the North and the South of America. Does Donna know how to prepare açaí berries, or cassava flatbread? Tacacho, or perhaps Brazilian maniçoba? I did not realize before how diverse and interesting the Amazon were! I have been meaning to ask Donna if I would be allowed to visit her island. Its climate sounds quite similar to my home.” 

Jason blinked, held up his bag of apples to estimate the weight, and then turned to look at Kori. “I think you might be confused.” He saw Kori's face scrunch up just a tad, as he placed the apples into the cart and grabbed another bag. “Now that you mention it, I don't really know what Amazons eat. Maybe it's similar to other Aegean cuisines? Or maybe it's a more archaic form? Huh, it's an interesting question now that you've brought it up.” He'd have to look into it more. He started filling up the next bag with oranges.

Kori almost looked sad. “Was the book mistaken?” 

Jason shook his head. “No, but it's complicated. There's the Amazon river and rainforest, which is what you're thinking about, and then there are the Amazons, that live on Themyscira, which is a part of the Paradise Islands. They're two different things. The Amazon is located in South America, and is the most diverse rainforest in the world, and home to the Amazon river basin. It's an amazing place. The Paradise Islands aren't located anywhere close to that.”

“Oh,” Kori said, and she had that look of contemplation on her face. “So the Amazons do not live in the Amazon. Are the words spelled differently?” 

“Nah,” Jason finished loading up the oranges, and wandered over to the watermelons. He knocked on a few, and scrunching up his face at the sounds, before moving on to inspect the others. Kori followed, watching him closely. 

“That is confusing,” she admitted. 

“Yeah, a bit.” He knocked on one watermelon, and liking the sound of it, picked it up and inspected the bottom before putting it in the cart. Kori reached into the cart, and knocked on the watermelon too. Jason completely lost his train of thought as he watched her. It was like she was greeting it or something, and it was so damn cute. “Uh, what was I saying?” 

“About how confusing Amazon is,” Kori offered.

“Oh, right. There's a reason why the name is the same, but it gets complicated. They've got almost nothing in common. It was a misunderstanding at first.” As they passed the display of bananas, Jason pointed and Kori reached over and grabbed a bundle. She placed them gently in the cart, and they kept moving towards the vegetables. He eyed the tomatoes that were on sale, before reaching over to grab another bag. “The first Europeans to find the Amazon rainforest thought they'd found where the actual Amazons lived, and named it the Amazon. Of course, that was all wrong, but the name stuck.” 

“I see,” Kori said. “Perhaps I should inquire with Donna.” She watched him pick over the tomatoes, before grabbing one, looking at it, and then putting it in his bag. 

Jason shrugged, and let her pick them out, holding the bag as she placed them delicately inside. “If you want to know about food from Themyscira, then you should ask. Now that you've mention it, I'm curious.”

“I will inquire with Donna then,” Kori answered, as she continued placing tomatoes into the bag. When Jason thought there were enough, he closed his fist around the bag, and deposited it into the cart.

Jason moved over to the potatoes, and chucked a bag of them in too. “Good. It's not my place to be teaching you about someone else's culture, especially since you can talk to Donna about it.” 

“Why?” Kori asked as she moved over to retrieve a bag of mushrooms. “I find you very informative, Jason. You have taught me many things. It is obvious that you are a scholar.” 

Jason outright blushed at that. No one had ever called him a scholar before. Damn, Kori was so embarrassing, but he couldn't help the little flutter that the complement gave him. He felt lighter than air. “I might get it wrong,” he stuttered out, bringing his hand up to his face. He tried to make it look like he was studying the carrots very intently, but he was really just trying to hid how his cheeks were burning. “There are lots of different views about things. Ideally, you should learn about things from many different sides, but honestly, Donna's version of the truth in regards to her home, is what really matters.” 

Kori watched him, as he watched the carrots, before reaching over, and picking up a bag. When he nodded once, still feeling his face burning up, she placed it into the cart. “So it is all about disagreements and perspective?” she asked. 

“Yeah,” Jason answered, turning the cart around and grabbing a bag of broccoli as he passed. “A lot of things on Earth are.” He swallowed, and tried to force down his embarrassment, but the more he thought about the compliment, the more he felt himself blushing. He needed to stop thinking about it! “Isn't that the same with Tamaran?” he asked, more as a way to get her talking then anything else. 

“Perhaps,” Kori admitted. “But Tamarans, by in large, are united in their fight against the Citadel. In the past, there were some disagreements, we have texts on such matters, but in the current era, our conflict with the Citadel has been all encompassing. There seems very little that unites Earth's peoples.” She got a distant look in her eye, and pointed in the direction of the beats. They moved in that direction.

“Except maybe food,” Jason supplied.

Kori looked at him with another warm smile, and giggled. “Except maybe food,” she parroted back at him. He grabbed a few beats, and hoped it was enough for what Gar wanted. “I will try to ask Donna when you are present, so we can all hear what Donna has to say.” 

“I'd appreciate it.” 

They fell into silence after that. Kori retrieved a small bag of garlic, and they moved out of the produce section. It was still early in the day, and the shop itself wasn't busy. Jason preferred to go when it wasn't so crowded, doubly so when he went out with Kori. She didn't seem to mind that people stared at her so much, but Jason did. It gave him chills to have so many eyes on him, and as forward as Kori was about some things, she'd seemed to notice that. She'd only ever invited him to go out with her once while it was busy. Every subsequent invitation to go out, had been during off hours, when things weren't nearly as busy. 

Since the store was pretty quiet, it wasn't that surprising when he saw the staff putting out 'sale' signs on the Christmas chocolate that hadn't sold. He noticed one lone chocolate orange, and snatched it from the rack. He didn't usually indulge in sweets, but it was on sale, and these were damn good. 

“How was the Christmas?” Kori asked, watching him and smiling. 

“Uh-” he looked down at the chocolate orange, and put it in the front of the cart, where the baby would go if he had one. “It was nice.” They moved on, and a thought occurred to him. “Don't tell Harper about about that.” Jason pointed to the chocolate orange, with narrowed eyes.

Kori laughed. “I will not.” 

“How about you?” 

“There is no one you need not tell,” Kori answered. “I have nothing to hide.” 

Jason snorted, and moved them over to the meat section, browsing the supply. “Christmas,” he said picking out some chicken, beef and then making a b line to the fish. He started loading in several kinds.  
He made a habit of staying away from fish while in Gotham (Joker Fish had almost decimated Gotham's fishing industry), but here on the west coast, Jason ate fish almost every other day. 

“Oh, it was also nice! Raven spoke to me at length about the festival. Gar ran around the tower as a polar bear with bottles of coca-cola, then as a squirrel climbing up the tree, and M'gann and I learned to bake cookies!” Kori stated, her voice animated and happy. That was good, he'd been anxious about leaving the team alone on their first Christmas in the tower. It'd felt wrong. He was glad to know that they'd had a good time without him. “I did not have time to miss my family,” she added, softer this time. 

He still missed Catherine, and it'd been years. “Even after everything, you still miss them?” Jason asked, because he didn't want to think about Sheila or Willis. He didn't hate them, despite everything, but he didn't miss them either. They were just there, nestled into his dna, reminding him of what he really was, no matter how hard he worked. They were a hole that he'd never fill, no matter how hard he tried. He didn't know how else to express it.

Kori nodded, and kept them walking past the meat to the dairy section. “I do not think I will forgive my sister, or my father, but they are my family.” Jason understood that more than he would ever admit. “I miss my mother and brother. I am happy to make a new family on Earth, but I will always miss Tamaran.” 

Kori reached down, and picked up a package of tofu. Jason noticed it was 'extra firm', as Kori placed it into the cart. “Will you not always miss Gotham?” Kori asked, and she put those green eyes on him, and he couldn't just look at them. He wondered if other girls were like that too, if gazing into their eyes was like looking at the stars.

“Well,” Jason palmed the back of his neck, realized he was doing it, and then shoved his hand in his pocket. He shrugged. “I can go home, Kori. It's not even on the same level.” 

“No, but it is the same in some way. If you did not miss it, you would not go home.” Kori turned those gorgeous eyes of her away, and grabbed more tofu. More tofu then Jason ever wanted to see in his bag. A little tofu here and there was good, but this seemed downright ridiculous. “M'gann does not miss Mars,” Kori supplied, “because she longs for a new home. There is something there she wishes not to relive. You and I are different. We have homes we love, but we are pulled in different directions.” 

“Gothams hard to love,” Jason said, trying to lighten the moment. Jason didn't know how Kori could even compare their situations. Her's was so much worse, and made him feel like such a child sometimes. Her problems were so much more storied, and his were so minor and trivial in comparison.  
Compared to her, his 'man pain' was ludicrous and nonsense. Even Bruce's was. He knew it, but she had the grace and dignity to still consider other people's problems, something he could only aspire to. 

Kori just smiled at him, soft and sad. “But you do, Jason.” 

“Well, yeah,” he admitted. She seemed pleased. Once she'd stopped loading the cart with tofu, they moved on. When he passed by the yogurt, he grabbed a few cartons.

They continued to browse the store in silence, moving on to grab a few loaves of bread. Horrible, terrible silence. Kori didn't seem to mind it, but Jason did, and he felt the undeniable urge to end it. So of course he said the dumbest thing that he could.

“You don't talk much about your younger brother.” Way to go Todd, he should write a book about how to be socially awkward and offensive by offering bad advice and asking intrusive questions. “I mean-” he stuttered. “I know about your sister, but not your brother. Not that you- you don't have to. If, if you don't want to. I mean-” 

Kori watched him, her eyes that endless green, and her face with only a hint of something he couldn't read. “He was small when I was taken from my home world,” Kori said, and she was still looking at him dead on, and Jason just wanted to hide in a hole. Then she looked away, and he followed her lead into the pasta aisle. He grabbed a big bag of rice, and several different kinds of pasta, while she watched him in silence. 

Jason thought the conversation was rightfully over, but then she spoke again, and this time it was soft, but firm.“He cried and pleaded with my father for me to stay. It saddens me that is the strongest memory I have of him. He was not like my sister, full to the brim with jealousy for me, but instead took the opportunity to search for his own calling.” 

“Did he find it?” Another stupid question, out of his mouth before he had the sense to shut up. He started moving again, heading out of the food section of the store. He grabbed a carton of eggs, flipped them open, inspecting them quickly and then placed it at the front, with the chocolate orange. 

“I do not know.” Of course she wouldn't know. She'd never been back to Tamaran. What an insensitive prick he was being. Why did people even put up with him? They moved onto the toiletries. The tower always needed more toilet paper, and paper towels. There was never enough.“But I believe in his future.” 

“Sounds like a good kid,” Jason said, and was amazed that it wasn't something offensive or insensitive. He eyed the different varieties of paper items, frowning as he realized that the regular one he bought wasn't in stock. “Mine's a brat,” he supplied almost offhandedly, taking the opportunity to instead talk about something much safer.

Kori's eyes turned to him, inquisitive and kind, the sadness of before only a lingering shadow over her face. She reached down, and picked the package of toilet paper that was the most colorful, with cute little animals on them. Jason shrugged, they'd probably be just as good as any other.“You did not tell me you had a sibling,” Kori said. 

“He's new.” Jason shrugged one shoulder, and grabbed the normal paper towels he bought. “Ish.” 

“He is an infant?” Kori asked. “Should you not be home welcoming him into your family?” They moved onto the pharmacy, but on the way, Jason had them detour to the candles. Without a second thought, he grabbed a medium sized cedar candle, and put it in the front, with the eggs and chocolate orange. 

“He's adopted.” 

Kori's face brightened, and they moved out of that aisle and into the pharmacy section in truth. “You must love him extra.” 

Jason stopped in front of the band-aid display, and looked at her. “What?” 

“You must love him extra.” Kori reached out and grabbed colorful set of band aids with horses on them. Jason grabbed a couple rolls of the adhesive wraps and bandages. About half the tower went through them like candy. The other half was damn near immortal. “It is a saying on my home planet. I don't think I translated it right. It means that you must love them more than normal, and be kind, or they will not feel they belong in your family.” Kori watched him as he put them in with the other shopping. She then reached in, took the wraps back out, and exchanged them for ones that were bright pink, neon yellow, cobalt blue, indigo and fire truck red. “Is there not such a saying on Earth?” 

“I don't think so.” Jason eyed the brightly colored bandages with open hostility, but Kori just smiled at him, and he let it go with a sign. “Most people don't think adoption is a great thing.” He picked up a couple bottles of rubbing alcohol. 

“How can Earth be so forward thinking in some ways, and so backwards in others?” Kori asked, as they moved out of the pharmacy, and into the checkout line. There weren't many people at the store, but there also weren't many cashiers working either, so Jason picked the shorter of the two lines, and they waited. Now that they were at the front of the store, where there were more people, Jason could feel eyes on them. 

“You got me there,” Jason admitted, glaring at anyone that openly stared at Kori. “No clue.” 

A little girl with dark frizzy hair looked over at Kori with wide brown eyes. Kori smiled, and waved. She got a shy smile, and another wave back. “What is he like?” Kori asked, making a kissy face at the little girl.

“Demanding.” They moved with the line, and the girl went out of sight as her mother got in between Kori and the little girl. “He's super bossy for a brat, and he talks a lot, and he's always poking at me, and annoying me, and stealing my books.” After just a few seconds, those brown eyes were peeking over her mother's shoulder to get another look at Kori, before the little girl ducked down again, and giggled. 

“He must like you a great deal.” Kori turned back to look at him, before surveying all that they'd gathered into their basket. “Do we have enough bags to carry all of these things on your bike?” 

“Probably.” Jason shifted, looking at everything they'd grabbed. He eyed the chocolate orange, second guessing if he should really get it, before shaking his head. “You flying it all back is my backup if we can't.” 

“We could race,” she offered. 

“You'd win.” 

“Yes I would.” There was a confident smirk on her face that practically made her glow. “Have you told him you dislike these things?” She was looking at him again, entirely focused now that there was nothing else to distract her. Then the little girl in front of them popped up to look at her again, and Kori cooed back at her. 

“He knows,” Dick was way too smart not to know. “He just thinks everything's about him.” 

This time the mother looked back behind her. Her eyes went wide and she turned around in a hurry. There was a harsh reprimanding whisper, and the little girl didn't pop up again. Kori didn't look displeased, but her shoulders slumped just a tad. “Is he kind?” She asked, looking over at Jason again. 

“I don't know? Maybe?” Jason shrugged. Dick wanted to help people, so he was probably kind. It was a weird question to ask though. Their lives were so shaded in whites, blacks, and grays, that 'kind' didn't seem to factor into things much. 

Kori's eyes narrowed just a tad, before she spoke again. “If you asked him to help you, would he do it?”

“Probably?” He wasn't completely sure. What would he even need help with? They moved forward in the line again and watched as the woman in front of them started loading her things into the cart. “I don't know.” 

The little girl popped back up to look at Kori with a smile on her face, but her mother pushed her down with a swift word, and the little girl yelped in protest. As the woman moved to keep unloading her cart, they could catch the little girl pouting. Kori's eyes looked distant, sad. 

“You should ask him to help you, and see what happens.” She clasped her hands behind her. “He keeps asking for your attention, perhaps you should ask for his instead.” 

That was a thought that probably would have never occurred to him, but what help would he need from Dick? The line moved forward again, and the two of them started loading their goods onto the conveyor belt. Kori took the items out of the cart, and handing them to Jason who loaded them up. “I kinda go home to escape all of the noise and chaos, not to toss myself right back into it,” Jason said, focusing more on the repetitive motion of the task then the conversation. 

“Then it is a matter of you not wanting the home he has to give you?” Kori offered him the chocolate orange, the last item to be taken out of their cart. Jason took it, eyed it longingly, then put it back on the side shelf. Even with all of it's chocolatey citrusy goodness, he was on a strict diet, and probably didn't need the empty calories. They couldn't all be West, the walking garbage disposal. 

“No- I mean... maybe? When you put it that way, I should like a jerk.” He shrugged one shoulder, palmed the back of his neck, realized he was doing it, and then shoved his hands back into his pockets. They moved up in the line.

“No, these things are very hard.” Kori reached over, where Jason had discarded the chocolate orange. She held it in her hands, examining the blue and gold packaging, and tracing the raised lettering. She looked over at him, and smiled, soft and gentle. “It takes time and love to live with people. If he is new, maybe he does not yet know how you love, just as you do not know how he loves.” She placed the chocolate orange on the conveyor belt, and Jason didn't even think to stop her. 

“Yeah,” Jason answered lamely, still looking at the chocolate orange. 

The woman in front of them was paying, and as she was distracted, the girl once again popped her head out, and waved at Kori. Kori waved back, and blew a kiss to the little girl. The little girl blew one back, before her mother turned back around, and started loading things into her cart. 

The cashier, who was probably a university student, looked up, and uttered a “Welcome to-” before openly gawking at Kori. Jason glowered, while Kori smiled sweetly. The cashier's cheeks flushed, and he went about his work, ringing up the items, and keeping his eyes down. 

“I'll think about it,” Jason said, as Kori smiled brightly at him. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a couple well folded canvas bags, and handed them to her.

“Remember that you must love him extra.” Kori said, taking the bags and starting to load the items into it. “If love finds no home, if it is denied at every turn, it warps into hate, and hate is a sickness that is difficult to recover from.” 

Jason eyed her, as she finished loading up the items. Her words weighed heavily on his mind as he considered just how much she must have suffered in the years she'd been a slave. Then he realized that the cashier was looking at them inquisitively. 

“What are you looking at?” Jason huffed. Kori giggled, and she returned to his side, holding the bags with no effort at all. 

“You're total,” the cashier said, nodding at the card reader. He was still looking at Kori like she was the most exotic thing he'd ever seen, and Jason hated him for it. She wasn't a damn elephant at the zoo. 

“Thank you, Grant.” Kori said, examining the cashier's name tag. Jason had no idea how she didn't mind all the gawking. He was sure she'd handled worse, but still. 

Jason grumbled, and swiped his card to pay. The cashier handed them a receipt and, and the two walked out. Jason tried to reach for one of the bags, but Kori outright laughed at him, and shifted them out of his reach without a word. 

“Being new is not easy,” Kori said, walking by people that kept looking at her as if she was going to destroy the whole place in one burst of superhuman power. She could, but Kori was sweet, and would never do such a thing. It made him mad to think that people mistrusted her, just because she looked different. It wasn't right. “There is great light, and great dark within you, Jason. You are constantly at war with yourself. If you continue to share that light, it will lead others. I think your little brother only wishes to share in that light with you, as all siblings do. Give him that chance, and I do not think you will be disappointed.” 

Jason shrugged, sheepish. “I'll try.”


End file.
